Martin Keown was described as a "fantastic actor" by the Roma coach Fabio Capello last night as the England defender became the latest Arsenal player to be embroiled in a row over cheating.

Just as Francis Jeffers was accused of throwing himself to the turf too easily to earn a penalty against Chelsea last weekend, Keown was criticised by Capello for his part in the first-half dismissal of Francesco Totti.

Totti was shown a red card for apparently elbowing Keown, who collapsed clutching his face after a challenge near the edge of the area. Capello insisted Keown had sought to get his captain sent off when there was no significant contact and mocked the supposed English love of fair play.

"[Totti] literally just leans on the other player," Capello said. "He didn't elbow him, he just touches the side of his face with his hand. The defender was a fantastic actor. Keown just did what he wanted and he meant to get Totti sent off.

"This time you [English] have really failed in showing good sportsmanship. You are always trying to teach everyone lessons about being good sportsmen but this time you have failed. You are always saying that we Italians are always throwing ourselves on the ground and you have swapped sides in a way."

Capello received applause from members of the Italian media for his comments. Arsène Wenger, meanwhile, raised a chuckle for his insistence that he had not seen the incident. The Arsenal manager, though, spoke of surprise at the red card.

"I would love to see it on television because I just saw the red card," he said. "I was surprised because it was maybe an accident."

Keown seemed to make more than necessary of the challenge, though Totti still deserved the card if the intent was there. "I didn't touch him," Totti said. "For 10 minutes before that he was kicking me and I told the referee but he didn't do anything. I never made contact, he just went down."

Wenger was happier to talk of the task ahead. Arsenal need a point in Valencia next week to be certain of reaching the quarter- finals and he sounded bullish. Sir Alex Ferguson might call Wenger's reaction over-confident; for the Frenchman it was just common sense.

"We have been very strong away from home and so it looks quite logical to say that I'm confident," he said. "We won in Rome, we have played a 0-0 at Ajax and I think we will get a result in Valencia. I believe in this group of players and I know how strong they are when they want to perform."

Here Wenger was left to rue both the "cheap goal" his team gave away just before half-time at a point when they seemed in control and their failure to take the opportunities that came their way. Arsenal are lacking a killer instinct in Europe and Wenger sounded frustrated.

"If you take the three games against Valencia, Ajax and Roma and you look at the number of shots on goal that we had and the number of shots on goal we had against us, you get quite mad because it's unbelievable," he said.